Appearances Can be Deceiving
by Sparkling Lover
Summary: Updated version, When Rose Stanton has a encountered with Hank McCoy, she becomes scared of his appearance. However, at the same time, something about him draws the twelve year old closer and closer, until she finds the Human within the Beast.
1. Chapter 1

**(Here is my first X Men: Evolution story, featuring my newest OC, Rose Stanton. I must admit, I hadn't been a fan of the X Men when I was younger, but then after watching X Men: Evolution and episodes of Wolverine and the X Men *Sill upset that it got canceled* I started to grow fond of it. I mostly like the characters, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm and Nightcrawler. But, my absolute favorite is Beast; who doesn't love that big blue fur ball? I don't know why, but for some reason I cannot help but grin and relate to him the most. I do like to read, and I do know a lot of certain subjects, and yet I feel as if I don't fit in all the time.)**

 **X Men: Evolution (C) Marvel and Disney**

 **Rose Stanton (C) Me**

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 **Appearances Can Be Deceiving**

* * *

It had been over a month since Rose Stanton, a twelve year old girl from Los Angeles, California, had been taken in by the X Men after her mutant powers activated one night. Her mutant talent in particular was the ability to turn herself into any living creature after observing a specific animal for a few seconds.

The little red-haired girl was very much surprised and anxious about her powers, and being taken to a new home where she would have to learn to control her powers. She often thought that certain events that were similar to her situation was something that Hollywood would have conjured up, and would have been impossible to happen in the real world. Yet, it did happen, and it happened to her.

Despite Rose's arrival and her obvious uncertainty to her new home at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, some of the resident students were always there to help her feel comfortable.

Kitty Pride, the young mutant girl with the ability to phase through anything, became almost like a sister to her because she was so cheerful and sweet, and had developed a similar relationship with Jean Grey because she thought that Jean looked a lot like her, only taller and more older. She even enjoyed having her haired styled by Jean from time to time.

Rose was okay with Scott Summers, another older student who had the mutant power of shooting lasers from his eyes, but admitted that he could sometimes be a little too serious at times and was often the one to be overly protective of her at times.

Rose absolutely adored Kurt Wagner, the blue mutant with the power to teleport himself around in a puff of smoke, and the two would often be seen playing together or goofing around. In all honesty, she saw Kurt as a fun little brother she always wanted, even though he was older than her.

She liked Evan Monroe, the mutant who had the powers of shooting out spikes and making spikes appear on his body, and thought that his powers were neat . She even tried to replicate his use of his powers by turning herself into a porcupine, but then sadly discovered that porcupines couldn't shoot their quills like needle projectiles.

Rose enjoyed being around Ororo Monroe, one of the faculty members of the school and had the ability to manipulate the weather, and had thought that Ororo looked very lovely and often enjoyed listening to her tell her stories of her home back in Africa.

Professor Xavier was almost like a grandfather to Rose; he wasn't that old enough to be considered a grandfather, but she thought he had a personality of one. He was patient, wise and very kind and understanding. Just like all of the mutants, he, too, had powers. He had the talent of using telepathy and creating Mind Bolts, a sort of psychic energy that he can transmit to anyone, rendering them unconscious and even erase memories. But, thankfully for Rose, he only used this whenever there was a threat and nothing else.

Rose liked Logan Howlett, even though she would often call him by his code name: Wolverine. She admired how strong he was and how tough he looked; she even admitted to herself that he did look incredibly handsome because of this, and his retractable adamantium claws were also a bonus in her book of Hot Hunks. This book of hers was was mostly kept within herself and the pages would sometimes open up whenever Rose saw Logan exercising or just leaning against a wall. Logan would hide his annoyance when Rose was about making goo-goo-eyes at him; he could lose his temper with the male students, but had the decency to hold it in when the female students, including the younger ones, were around.

With all of these new friends and teachers, Rose was slowly starting to settle in. However, there was one last member of the school she had not encountered, and she would have the most unsuspecting meeting with him, and it all happened on a Saturday afternoon when she was chasing after Kurt in a game of tag. She was currently in the form of a greyhound, sprinting after Kurt and barking shrilly in playful mirth.

"I'm going to get you, you blue monkey!" she barked as she watched him turn a corner and ran faster to catch up.

"You're too slow, kleines Mädchen! I am a pro at this game!" Kurt teased in his native language and wagged his pointed tail about as he went down the stairs to the lower quarters of the institute. This was where the classrooms and laboratory were located.

"As you American's say, 'Smell ya later!'" Kurt laughed as he then leapt into the air and disappeared in a puff of smoke, and at that moment Rose sprung at him in hopes of catching him. All that she could catch was some smoke and coughed.

"Kurt, no teleporting!" Rose coughed as she changed back to her human form. After clearing the smoke away, she looked around to find various doors down a long hallway, all of them closed. "Hmm, Maybe Kurt teleported himself into one of those rooms? I better go find that blue monkey before I end up getting lost down here. I haven't been down this area," Rose told herself as she went down the hall. She opened each other the closed doors to peer inside each of the rooms, but could not find any sign of Kurt in either one. She was sure that Kurt was somewhere, but where?

Rose suddenly saw one door that she hand't spotted, opened at the far end of the hall. She hadn't looked in that room and had a feeling that Kurt was inside and smiled. "Ooh, I got you this time, Kurt." she whispered as she quietly made her way to the door and went inside.

She found herself in a laboratory that was clean, and all around she found various test tubes, chemistry sets, several folders and paper, examination tables and microscopes. To Rose, the lab reminded her of her science class at her school she had been registered in by Professor Xavier, but on a much bigger scale.

"Huh, what a place," she said under her breath as she continued looking around.

Just then, she spotted a hunched figure at one of the tables; it's back was facing her and she could see that it was blue.

Blue.

Just like Kurt.

But, Kurt didn't have big muscles or had hair that was long and rather wild-looking. Maybe it was just another one of his mutant powers he had and didn't bother telling her about it? Either way, she had to find out who it was. She went up to the figure and asked, "Kurt? What are you doing?"

It was after she said those words that the figure turned around and it's shadow casted over the little girl as it looked at her. Rose's eyes observed and doubled in size in complete terror, feeling her back become bone-chillingly cold. This thing that was looking at her was blue like Kurt; but it didn't look anything like him at all. It had a burly, muscular body similar to that of a gorilla, long arms and huge handstand simian feet, and eyes that almost seemed to stare into her soul.

* * *

Kurt had teleported himself to the main entrance inside the mansion, just by the stairs. He had accidentally spooked Kitty and Evan, who were just heading up the stars to their rooms. Kitty was hoping to get some last minute studying for a test she had on Monday before she could hang out with her friends from school, and Evan was just about ready to collapse onto the bed after a long training session with Logan.

"Give us a warning next time, Kurt!" Kitty exclaimed as she waved her hand about to clear out some smoke that had yet to clear up. "You almost gave me a heart-attack, again,"

"Sorry about that, Kitty," Kurt apologized and scratched behind his elf-like ears in embarrassment. "Rose and I were just playing, that's all."

"Maybe you and Rose should play somewhere else and not having you pop up unexpectedly, dude," Evan mumbled as he stretched his arms. "So, what were you and Rose playing?"

"Tag, and so far, she hasn't gotten me yet." Kurt replied.

"So, do you know where she is?" Kitty asked, being a little worried about Rose being alone in the mansion. "You know as well as I that she only knows half of the mansion, and she could get lost."

"Or worse, end up in the Danger Room," Evan brought up.

"Evan, please,"

"What? It was just a suggestion."

"Guys, it's okay," Kurt interrupted. "I am sure that Rose is okay, and that there is nothing wrong."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

All at once, a loud, piercing scream of a little girl sounded throughout the building, echoing through the hallways and staircases, and running straight into the room was a frightened goat. It was Rose. Rose the goat, and in her panic, she knocked both Kitty, Evan and Kurt down onto the floor.

"Ow! Oof! Hey!" they each sounded as the barn animal that had once been their friend slammed into them. After they got up and when Rose changed back to her human form, they asked her what was wrong. Rose could hardly speak after running and screaming.

"M...M...M..M..Monster...C..Claws...Teeth like daggers...Blue fur...After..me.." she gasped.

The three other mutants were confuse, so Kitty knelt down to Rose's level and stroked her hair and head to calm her down.

"Calm down, Rosie, just tell me what is wrong? What scared you?" Kitty would often call Rose 'Rosie' at times, and Rose wasn't at all bothered by the little nickname.

Rose did as she was told and took a couple breaths and was finally able to speak clearly. "I was inside this lab, or something like that, and there was a huge blue monster. I-"

But before she could continue, there was the sound of something coming into the room, and Rose became terrified and turned herself into a cat, and leapt into Kitty's arms. "Don't tell it I'm here," she whispered and quivered in fear.

"What do you mean?" Kitty asked, but then looked into the hallway and stood up; the three young teens saw what it was, or rather _who_ it was that scared Rose.

Slowing down his pace while on all fours, Hank McCoy had come into the room.

"Mr. McCoy, what are you doing?" Kurt asked.

"I am searching for a young child that had penetrated into my lab by accident, I fear that I might have startled her with my appearance. Have any of you seen her?" Hank asked, but then his eyes spotted a small brown and white cat cradled in Kitty's arms. "And, who might this Felis catus be, Kitty? A new friend of yours?" he inquired, mentioning the animal's scientific name.

"Oh, this? Uhh, in a way, it is." Kitty nervously answered as she petted Rose, hoping that it would settle her down. Rose had been shaking; her quivering becoming more powerful as Hank came closer to her.

"Hello, there, little fella," Hank smiled and reached over to Rose.

All that Rose saw was Hank's sharp teeth as he smiled, and the huge blue hand reaching out to her.

"NO! NO!" Rose screamed and screeched as she then retracted her claws and swiped at the hand, scratching one finger in the process. Hank quickly jerked his hand back and grunted and hissed in pain. Thinking that he had become angry, Rose squirmed out of Kitty's arms and leapt away from them, changing herself into a capuchin monkey, and scampered up the stairs to her bedroom. Her door slammed, sending a echo as the teenaged mutants and the teacher stood there.

Hank was a bit startled and somewhat hurt, even more hurt now that he saw that his finger was dripping blood from the small cut.

"It's my fault. I am sorry," he sighed as he turned and walked away on all fours, leaving Evan, Kurt and Kitty alone to clean his wound. Kitty, however, looked up the stairs and then decided that her homework would wait. She had a little sister to go see.

* * *

 ***Authors Note***

 **(I had to take the story down in order to make some adjustments and fixing some errors that I haven't noticed. One of them being too obvious. WHO GOES TO SCHOOL ON SATURDAY'S AND SUNDAY'S? LOL!? I am such a Doo-Doo head, aren't I? Any who, now that I made the corrections, I will be at work on the next chapter. I'll be looking forward for comments, likes, etc. Sparkling Lover out.)**


	2. Chapter 2

**(Sorry to keep you all waiting, I had been on vacation recently and have just returned home. My mind is a state of relaxation, so some of my stories are taking a while to work on. But, I have managed to get this one done. Enjoy!)**

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Kitty was on her way down the hall that led to the bedrooms of the recruits when she saw Jean Grey and Scott were heading in the same direction at the opposite end of the hall, all of them ending up at Rose's bedroom door. "Kitty, we heard a scream. What's happened?" Jean asked.

"Well, Rose and Kurt were playing tag, and for some reason Rose got separated and ended up encountering Mr. McCoy, and...well," Kitty was stuck for words, but was interrupted while being silent, and she and Jean and Scott turned to see it was Beast. He had a neutral, sad look in his face.

"I am afraid the cause to this dilemma was me. She stumbled into my lab by mistake and had mistaken me for Kurt." He then sighed as he continued, looking at his hand and observing the finger that had been scratched. A bandage was applied, but the pain was still there. "I tried to stop her when she screamed and ran off in fear, but that was when I found Evan, Kitty and Kurt. There was a cat in Kitty's arms and as I reached out to pet it, but I heard the little one scream and she slashed at my hand. I hadn't the notion that she could transform into animals, and because of my inability to suspect it being her and not a real cat, I got hurt".

"Oh, man, I'm sorry about that, Mr. McCoy," Scott apologized, but Hank only shook his head.

"I accept your condolences, Summers, but I believe it was my fault. I wasn't there when she first arrived and had not made contact with her, because I was busy furnishing my room and the laboratory." Hank further explained as he softly scratched the side of his head, mostly around his sideburns.

Kitty then decided to knock on the door and tell Rose that she and the others were going to come in; she offered Hank to join them but he declined, stating that he might upset the child even more if he were to go in with them.

"I will wait out here and listen," said he as the three mutants went in. He stood by the wall and kept himself quiet, allowing his sharp ears hear all that was going on in the bedroom. Alongside with having superb strength and speed, he had a keen sense of hearing, although they were not as Wolverine's, who had much better hearing as well as the rest of his senses.

From inside the bedroom, Scott and the two girls found the room was empty and were just about to search for Rose went they spotted something tiny slithering underneath the covers of the bed. Scott was the one who lifted up the cover and reeled back with a slight yelp at what he found.

A ball python was sticking its head out from under the covers; its beady black eyes staring at the three teenaged mutants. "Pleasssssse, don't ssssscream. It'ssssss only me," said its small voice, but it was easily recognized as that of Rose's, only at a much higher pitch. Kitty sighed in relief as she knelt down by the bedside and removed the rest of the covers to allow Rose to change back into a human.

"What was that for? You almost scared us," she gently asked.

"It was much easier for me to hide that way. I could've been mistaken for a crease of the cover," Rose explained as she then sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, her face facing downward.

"We heard you scream earlier, Rose," Jean Grey spoke as she helped Scott up to his feet and they both went over to sit next to the young mutant. "From what we heard, you encountered one of the faculty members and were spooked by him."

"Huh? That monster was a faculty member?" the little girl said.

"That wasn't a monster, Rose. That was Hank McCoy, and he is a mutant like us," Scott answered in a serious tone, but not to much to sound as if he was angered. "And I think you calling him a 'Monster' might have hurt his feelings."

"Well, how was I suppose to know that?" Rose had lifted her head and brush her red hair back. It was done in a loose ponytail and it had crossed over to the left of her face. "And I don't remember any of you guys telling me about a blue gorilla walking about..."

Scott sighed as he continued. "Yeah, you are right about that. However, that doesn't mean that you should be afraid of him, nor should you call him names."

"I'm not afraid," Rose denied as she furrowed her brows. She never wanted to show that she could be easily frightened by the simplest things. In fact, she really was not easily afraid of anything. However, there was a possibility that an incident such as this would have been seen by someone, and would in return believe that she was not as brave as she said she was, and gossip would eventually lead to ridicule of her, or so she believed.

"Then why did you scream at him and scratch at his hand earlier?" Kitty mentioned and petted the red hair of the child. Rose looked at Kitty and saw a comforting, small smile that seemed to tell her that there was no need to lie to her.

Rose sighed as she shook her head sadly. "Well, what he _looked_ like scared me." When asked about what she meant she further explained that when she was only five years old her father had an old videotape of an old horror movie from sometime between either the 40' or 50's. "I forget what the title of that flick was, but I do remember that it was about a group of people getting hunted down by this monster. It was hairy all over, wild hair, claws on both hands and feet, and..." Rose felt her voice shake in embarrassment and allowed Jean to interrupt her.

"You believe that this creature looks a lot like Mr. McCoy, don't you?". Jean spoke.

Rose nodded. "Ding Ding Ding, somebody give you a prize. Yeah, it is. I know, it's stupid, but it's true."

"But Beast has no claws, and I can personally tell you that he is probably one of the nicest people around here. After all, he was once our Chemistry teacher at the High School." Kitty smiled again as she wrapped an arm around Rose, who looked at her with a dumbfounded expression.

"You're kidding, right? How could he work at your school while he looked like a-"

"He is not a gorilla, nor a monster, Rose." Scott interrupted. "He looked just like us before he came to live with us."

"I wasn't going to call him any of those names, thank you, very much." Rose huffed as she scowled at Scott. "Although, I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just that, the creature from the movie I saw when I was younger really scared me and I had nightmares almost every night. And, now that I met Mr. McCoy, I can't help but see that monster from that movie." Rose sighed as she began to feel very guilty about her first impression of Beast.

"Rose, if you want to, we can ask Mr. McCoy to come and meet you sometime today, and maybe you could apologize?" Kitty asked, noticing the girl's silence and the guilty expression painted on her face. "Look, I was scared of him when I saw him in his new form, but he is one of the nicest men you'll ever meet."

"Could I have some time to think about it? Rose asked. Jean said that it would be alright, and she left with Scott and Kitty following suit.

Outside of the bedroom, Scott informed Hank of their situation. Even though he had heard the three of his students conversing with the latest edition from the other side of the door, Hank listened and started to concoct a plan. As far as the science and chemistry teacher knew when he arrived at the Institute, some of the new recruits were frightened by his 'unique' appearance, but they soon came to accept him after seeing his true nature.

However, the case with Rose was going to be an especially tough case. From what he was told his appearance reminded the young girl of a monster from a film long ago, and that she had nightmares of the supposed doppelgänger that had a vague semblance to him at a younger age.

That's when he felt a light bulb in his subconscious mind light up. "I believe I might have a solution." Hank proceeded to elucidate his plan and the three teens nodded their head in agreement, although they were uncertain of whether or not their former chemistry teachers plan would work.

After he left the hallway and down the staircase, all Hank needed to do with his plan was to make some mint tea, and then find a book that would be appropriate to read for the occasion. If he wanted to make Rose feel comfortable, he had to find a source of material that would fit the bill.

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 ***Authors Note***

 **(A little short, I know, but I felt you guys were getting impatient. I'll be working on the next chapter soon.)**


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